31 July 2009

Earlier today police arrested two Santa Cruz men in connection to the disappearance and presumed death of burner Elias Sorokin. There is still one man police have determined is involved with this case. His name is Adam Hunt, pictured here. Hunt is considered to be dangerous, but it is unknown if he is armed.

UPDATE 1 August 2009 - MercuryNews.com is reporting that Hunt surrendered to Santa Cruz police earlier today. He is booked on charges of robbery, kidnapping and conspiring to commit a crime. Bail is set at $1 million.

Friends and family of Sorokin remain hopeful that he is still alive and are offering a $20,000 reward for any information leading to his safe return. Contact the LAPD at (213) 485-5381.

30 July 2009

"Back in '04, Mattypoo found a gentle man wandering on the playa with a cattle prod. It turned out he was an "experientialist". He told Mattypoo, "This will hurt a lot, but then you will feel amazing and you'll want to hug me."

As promised, it sucked for a moment and then Mattypoo gave the mendicant priest a big hug. Delicious Dan loves hugs, so he was inspired to open up his own shop!

No bartering, no "gift exchange", just 100% absolutely $free$ electroshock therapy! And there was no shortage of volunteers to experience this 100% absolutely *real* cattle prod shock to the ass, either!

OK...I failed to post here that Hollis Hawthorne, the burner woman who has been in a coma since February, had a major breakthrough last Tuesday and spoke. You can get all that amazing, wonderful and heartwarming information on the blog Help Holli Heal set up by her family here.

I'm sorry, I thought everybody heard! I mean, on July 28 @ 5:10 pm I tweeted the following:

I posted this to my Facebook wall and on Tribe, too. But in my excitement I cut and pasted the wrong URL. Above is the correct one. A reader of this blog pointed out that while the focus on Elias Sorokin is important, Hollis' triumphant story is getting buried and that they "needed a victory. Please make a blog post about this."

So here it is, dear reader! Thanks for your feedback and yes you're right. We really need a win right now.

FWIW, I visited with Hollis twice since she's been hospitalized. In June I posted to Tribe that "Her mother is with her 24-7. She sleeps in a bed next to Hollis and talks to her and cares for her constantly. It's beautiful to see her love and devotion for Hollis. It's a lot of work and she could use some encouragement and strength."

Now it looks like she could use a bit more than that. Deb Prothero on Tribe has posted: "Further news on [Hollis' blog] indicates a need to get Hollis to Tennessee so that her caregiving mother will be able to also be near the rest of her family. If anyone has contacts in the Tennessee health care community, now would be the time to speak up."

So go to the Help Holli Heal blog. Check out the updates. Help where you can. And don't forget to donate to her cause. Every penny helps.

Get ready for Burning Man with Crunchy Mama's amazing and totally comprehensive packing list! This list has been in development going on 12 years now and has been invaluable in my preparations for Black Rock City for every one of them.

Crunchy writes: "Everyone can add, delete or modify it at will. It's 2 years old, so some of the Reno info may be a bit outdated...but it's not too bad. I wish I had time to really tweak it, but I probably won't get to it until next week."

You can download it for free at Archive.org right here. When you land on the page click on "PDF" in the box on the left side.

Hi! I'm Katherine the Great. This week's episode is part of my "Burners in Business" series featuring an interview from 2007 with Nikki Doran, owner of Wild on the Inside and creator of Prepare for the Playa-- an annual event in San Francisco dedicated to providing everything you need for a great Burn! More than just your average trunk show, Prepare for the Playa aims to connect Burners in Business with the folks who could make the most use their products and services-- that is, other Burners!

In 2009, Prepare for the Playa will be held on three days in August-- August 1st, 22nd and 23rd, from 12 to 8PM at the Sports Basement at 1590 Bryant Street in San Francisco. Get prepared for your Burn this year with fashion shows, Playa 'U' how to clinics, performances and all the playa specific and playa friendly products & fashions from your favorite local Burner-Prenuers! More information at preparefortheplaya.com

Featured music is from beat-box artist Kid Beyond performing at Center Camp in 2008 recorded by Whiskey Devil.

27 July 2009

I met Peter, a Burning Man virgin, at the fundraiser for the Giant Cock art car. This video is a little hectic but try to stay with it. Peter has some questions for my audience. Please take a moment to answer them by leaving a comment below or on my Facebook wall if you're viewing it from there.

26 July 2009

As seen on Facebook, this is a prayer request on behalf of Anna Oleynik, the mother of missing burner Elias Sorokin, a 29 years old, last seen in Oakland. May have been in Santa Cruz, CA as of 7/20/09. Please forward.

To all who love Elias,

Elias mother here. Among Elias' friends are a few people who have contacted psychics about Elias and several of them are giving me reason to hope that Elias is alive - but he is in danger.

I am asking everyone, PLEASE, send thoughts of love and forgiveness to these people, that their negative energy may dissolve and they may see a way out and listen to their conscience and not do anything rash.

It is very important to gather yourselves, and find your deepest wisdom for this. It is counterintuitive - but do not send anger their way. Send love, send calm, and send forgiveness.

Thanks to all of you for listening! I just wanted to update you on our upcoming schedule release dates in iTunes for the month of August.

As you know, we make every effort to release the audio podcast through iTunes on tu-tu-Tuesdays. And wonderful Lecter is the one that handles the submissions to iTunes store. However we both have some summer travel plans (unrelated to Burning Man) that will effect our release schedule next month. So below is our release schedule for August 2009:

This Tuesday's episode (7/28) will be uploaded as scheduled.

Next Tuesday's episode (8/4) will be uploaded as scheduled. I will be in Kansas (specifically in Pittsburg). Any burners out there want to meet me? Contact me!

Tuesday (8/11) will be dark (no episode in iTunes) as Lecter is out of town. It's possible that I may post an mp3 file to the blog to be heard via your web browser but this is to be determined. But to repeat: no iTunes release until Lecter's return.

The following week it's very likely that any and all episodes will be released iTunes on Hump Day (8/19) instead of the usual tu-tu-Tuesday (8/18) because both of us will just be returning from our respective trips.

If (this is a big if) I have internet connectivity where I'm staying in Kansas our blog and the episode postings to the blog will not be effected. Only iTunes. If internet connectivity is limited subsequently all blog posts will be affected. Stay tuned for updates.

Please note, this will not effect the video podcasts, only the audio podcasts because I personally handle the iTunes feed for video.

It's worth mentioning that we are winding down the audio podcasts anyway and expect to be wrapped by September. Video podcasts will continue. We have over 80 audio podcasts available for free in iTunes so even if the next few weeks of our schedule maybe a little bumpy this is a great opportunity to check out previous episodes until we get back on track. All you have to do is subscribe in iTunes.

Thanks to everybody who took a moment to send me the widget to their Etsy shop for our posting "Crafting Burners on Etsy".

Some of you felt left out because you didn't know how to make a widget! This video is for you. We're gonna do it again. Click here to submit your entry and be sure to follow us on Twitter or check our blog for announcements.

25 July 2009

Please Help! Elias Sorokin has been missing since Monday 7/20...

... he went up to Northern California for a few meetings and has not returned to LA. He was last seen Monday evening 7/20/09 around 8 pm in Oakland.

A text was received to my dear friend Andrea (his good friend and business partner) on Monday night at 10 pm that he would be arriving back to LA around 4 am, Tuesday morning. He has not been heard of since.

We have now found out that someone has tried to cash a falsified check (he carries his check book on him at all times) and tried to use his credit cards.

We have filled a missing persons in Oakland. He drives a 2007 Toyota Tacoma beige/gold. License number 8H92932.

If you have any information, if you've seen him, anything at all. Please email me at minx006.9_[at]_gmail.com.

Although, I'm happy for your best thoughts and well wishes please do not bombard my email or phone. I need relevant information at this time. I know all of your hearts are with us at this time.

Please post this to your Facebook. Even if you do or don't know Elias.

We have filled a missing person and have a private investigator, we are looking for answers and need your help.

As promised in a previous blog post, here it is! A fabulous array of playalicious playwear and more by crafty burners on Etsy placed in alphabetical order. If you're running out of time in your pre-playa prep consider supporting a local community (drink!) artist.

24 July 2009

Some fun for you this weekend! Be sure to check out divaDanielle, if you are in LA, this Saturday at The Mountain Bar for Orange Kids Invade Chinatown! Info below! Also, check out divaD and Porter Tinsley's (aka The Girls of Shade) sets from last night @ Cirque Berzerk - www.shadeparties.com

"The devil is trying to draft all of our souls to fight God and His angels, so I figured it's high time we got rid of that chronic asshole! I picked up a roll of chickenwire and some vano to papier mache him with incendiary entrails. Since the devil came from the bible, I used a bible for the skin. I brought a few dozen, but it only took one bible to make the life-sized demon and his 8 foot tall pitchfork. He lived all week on the playa, facing the Man with a mirror, and then we burned him on Friday night to clear the way for the weekend.

Construction Notes
Papier Mache on the playa is a moop management challenge, but it's a great activity for passersby that want to contribute a few strips to the project. By the time he was done, my friend DaPete, my buddy Scott, and a host of new friends had all relaxed in the morning shade to run their fingers through the gooey wonder of vano and water. I used different chapter pages for his various parts: "Deutronomy" and "Numbers" (the law) were his pitchfork. His head was "Kings". His chest was "The Bible" from the cover inset page. His penis was "Genesis" and his anus was "Exodus".

The incredible fire sculpture that he's leaning on for the burn was built by JD (the star of the "mOOnshOt" demolition). I cleaned the wreckage up after I shot the final scene. I don't know how you feel about the death penalty, but the devil was a fucker of a moop generator so he had to be destroyed, which ironically generated more moop.

My friend and ex-BRC pat Andrew kept the brazier burning with fresh pages from the two dozen bibles I brought so that anyone who wanted could throw a few pages on. There was no shortage of volunteers.

This project was a hoot to execute, but a challenging concept, and my friend Scott (the son of a pastor) wonders what Jesus would think about all of this. All I can say is that I hope Jesus is cool."

23 July 2009

Earlier this week BMorg announced they will allow for ticket sales to be sold at the gate for last minute attendees. IMHO this development is an indication that sales are lower than expected. While many I've spoken to about this bitch that the return of this policy will increase the yahoo count, I have a hunch that crowds will be down and maybe this might even be a good year to go.

Earlier this summer I started a poll to see what the temperature was on this blog if people were going to the event. In an upcoming blog post I'll compare the results as voters weigh in to the countdown.

The thing that bewilders me is that nowhere in that article Danger Ranger references does it actually state that Burning Man is to become a non-profit. And I'm also wondering: do they realize that Twitter is a public conversation? Maybe the lesson BMorg needs to learn is the difference between a private email and a public tweet.

But then again this could be all just one big joke. Haha! Fuck you, ranger! I mean, you have to keep in mind that M2 is a former member of the Cacophony Society, so maybe this is just a prank. Just like the prank Paul Addis pulled in '07.

_____________________________________________

UPDATE 23 July 2009 11:30 - I guess I really should ask myself what I was smoking last night. While at first glance I thought the Hatted One was referencing the Black Rock Arts Foundation in this passage from the article, on a second reading I had to rethink this:

CG: So you wonder how Burning Man might look 50 years from now?

LH: Oh yeah, that’s what we’re working on. Next year will be our 25th — the silver jubilee if it were a marriage. The event is replenishing itself. Unlike a lot of things, it’s not defined by just one age cohort. It’s thriving. I’ve no trouble imagining it lasting another 25 years and more. We’re in the process of shedding the corporation into a non-profit in order to help take care of the employees who have been with us for so many years and allow them to advance in leadership and responsibility in our absence. We’re involved in a reorganization from top to bottom; it’s going to be very interesting.

Hi again everybody. I'm Tony Edwards also known as "OhTony" and I've been invited by DaBomb to be the newest contributor here on BURNcast.TV. This is Part Two of "Burner: Tales from the Playa" Parts Three and Four will be posted on the next two consecutive Wednesdays.

"1996 was the year Burning Man went over the edge: too many people for the infrastructure, too many gawkers, too many cars, too many arrests, too many heartbreaks. After years of beating the odds, we got our asses whipped, and we did it to ourselves."

-- Stuart MangrumEditor of Twisted Timesand former Director of Communications for the Black Rock City LLC.

19 July 2009

This article references Burning Man several times. According to it's author Suntoucher: "It appeared that the Web has exactly those qualities that proved essential for the formation of a large, global psychedelic community. More than any other non-mediated social phenomena the use of psychedelics was fueled by the Internet’s biggest successes: access to unbiased information, interactive communication and e-commerce."

17 July 2009

Get the latest headlines from the Burning Man 2009 right on your iPhone or iPod Touch with this new webapp. Each hour the folks at Webbappuniverse comb the Internet to find you the best headlines regarding the event and deliver them on your mobile device.

So now if you're unable to make it to Black Rock City this year, you won't be missing a thing!

Just one small piece of advice from me: turn off your phone at the event. It won't work anyway (unless it's a satellite phone) and besides: who the hell wants to be that connected at Burning Man? Sheesh! Unplug and enjoy the event!

15 July 2009

Hi, I'm Tony Edwards also known as "OhTony" and I've been invited by DaBomb to be the newest contributor here on BURNcast.TV. This is Part One of "Burner: Tales from the Playa". Parts Two, Three and Four will be posted on the next three consecutive Wednesdays.

"Burner: Tales from the Playa" is a one-man show written and performed by me. It is the true story of a seven-time "Burner" and chronicles the joy, heartbreak, amazement and life lessons learned at Burning Man, the annual festival which takes place on Black Rock Lake, a remote, dry lake bed in Northern Nevada, lovingly known to Burners as "the playa".

"Burner" is a multi-media production, featuring images, video and sound captured by me at Burning Man. It is directed by Jerry Diner. The above video is from a performance which took place on February 2, 2008 at Abundant Sugar in Los Angeles.

And so, I present to you, "Burner: Tales from the Playa". I invite you to watch it and share it with your friends. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed it's creation. Much love to all of my dusty friends who supported me in this labor of love.

14 July 2009

In this interview my guest "Charcoal" shares his experience of having survived falling into the remains of the Burning Man bonfire at the event in 2006. A year later he shares his story of recovery. Recorded 5 September 2007 in San Francisco, CA.

UPDATE: 15:00:06 14 July 2009:I want to clarify that "Charcoal" is not the identity of Anthony Beninati who, the year prior to Charcoal's incident, also fell into the burning ashes of the Man in 2005. According to reports, Beninati was a three time veteran of Burning Man whereas Charcoal was a virgin when it happened. Unlike Beninati, Charcoal did not sue the Black Rock City LLC nor does he plan to do so.

13 July 2009

Since 2002, Dan "Pastie Dan" Echegoyen hangs out in Center Camp and offers a highly specialized service to the women of Black Rock City. He even proudly wears a promotional tshirt to advertise! Dan offered me a demo but I hope my audience can forgive me for declining.

12 July 2009

Scott Beale is the blogger behind Laughing Squid, an online resource for art, culture, and technology based in San Francisco. He's been also covering stories pertaining to the Burning Man community (drink!) for a long time and we think Scott is just all sorts of awesome sauce. Scott took this set of photos are from last night's "Sand by the Ton" event in Oakland to benefit The Big Art Experience headed by Dan Das Mann and Karen Cusolito.

Homeslice is a Burning Man crew from Los Angeles that have a special place in my heart. In 2002 I had the pleasure of calling their camp my slice of heaven on the playa and ever since then the people there have been part of my burner tribe. In this home video we focus on one particularly amazing piece of art called "Leather Corndog" where you can drum to your soul's content on a re-purposed junk-metal sculpture. Earplugs and leather gloves recommended for extended crushing. More from filmmaker Jason Siadek:

"Helping out with an art project lets you participate in something much bigger than you might ever pull off by yourself. Even if you don't consider yourself an artist, there are many projects that could use your $, your camera, or a minute of your muscles. A lot of my films are about other people's art, and I always hope that somehow I can contribute by sharing their art in perpetuity after the fact. Nothing really compares to being there, but it's certainly worth the time to reflect. I've been fortunate to find some great people in the Burning community that have amazing projects that took an army to produce.'

"Leather Corndog is a series of projects that Reverend Nairb and Egg took the lead on, and in 2002 their project was a giant mobile drum set, powered and moved by people. I'd love to cut this short even smaller, or make it more melodic, but hopefully you can get a sense of the symphony and the dissonance, the chaos, and the harmony of this wondrous monstrosity! It starts off with a glimpse of our camp, "Homeslice" before night falls and the Leather Corndog goes on the beat."

"A short film shot from a bicycle as the sun rises over the Black Rock Desert on Saturday morning. I am out on open playa, blissfully weaving amongst beautiful Burners glowing in the first light of day, the Temple of Forgiveness, the shrine and Abraxas, a mobile art car/soundsystem that is providing amazing sunrise grooves."

08 July 2009

I just asked my friends on Facebook if they thought this was an infomercial or was it just me. It's worth mentioning that on the description on YouTube they have a link to the product's website. So now I put it to you. What do you think? Take the poll below!

This was an impromptu video shoot I did with the performance group LUCENT DOSSIER (a Los Angeles/Burner collective). It features particularly the aerialists Alecia Scholtze and Autumn Phillips. Made with Elevated Dreams and Morpheusfilm.

Like I said yesterday, I was so busy over the 4th of July weekend I don't have any videos for BURNcast.TV to post today. Malderor, our correspondent from San Francisco, was on assignment to cover the happenings on 4th of Juplaya but the dude completed a total fail when he forgot to bring his video camera with him. He did however send an SMS when he got off the Black Rock Desert to say "Fourth of Juplaya is better than Burning Man". From what we can tell in this video that was shot at last year's event we might have to agree.

07 July 2009

Hey everybody! Hope you all had a great 4th of July weekend. Mine was chockerblock with bar-b-cues and parties here in Los Angeles however several little burnies told me that Juplaya was off the hook.

Anyway, because I was so busy having fun I failed to meet my deadline for mixing and uploading the next episode of the BURNcast audio podcast. But don't be sad! Instead I'm offering here a replay of an earlier episode with the details below:

BURNcast #015Hope, Not Fear - A Podcard from Burning Man 2006

This episode of BURNcast is intended as a soundscape for friends who were unable to attend this year’s Burning Man. It’s like a postcard -- or rather a podcard -- featuring the sounds of the playa on Friday night before the burn. It’s simply a bike ride from 7:00 and Esplanade to 3:00 and Esplanade across the playa.

In it you will hear Megavolt’s electric presence, the Neverwas Haul’s whistle, blasts from Burninator II and El Diablo thundering in the night. You also will hear the squeek of bicycles and overhear conversations as things begin to literally heat up on the playa that night.

At the time of this posting there are over 78 episodes of the BURNcast audio podcast available for download for free in the iTunes store so be sure to check'em out! Until next week, I hope you enjoy this recording from Burning Man 2006.

06 July 2009

This summer there have been a quite a few applications that appear to be relevant and useful to burners who own an iPhone or an iPod Touch that I want to take a moment to share them with you. In my personal experience, my iPhone has impacted my life so positively, changed my life so completely and is the tool for which I connect with friends and family as well as is the medium in which I express and distribute my art that I feel it's worthwhile to take in-depth look at the current crop of apps available. Here goes:

BMTimerThe most recent app that just came out as of today is BMTimer by Brian Gowdrey. If you have an iPhone or an iPod Touch and you call yourself a burner, then by all means this is the number one app to get. It's just a simple countdown timer that's very similar to the dinky one they've got on the home page of the official BM website. So when I say simple, I mean bare bones basic. All you have to do to get it work is just click the effigy (like I just did now) and voila! At the time of this post BMTimer tells me it's 61 days until the Man® burns. Perhaps I should really describe this app as "bare bones basic and boring" but hang on just a minute. While indeed it would be awesome sauce and score 5 strips of bacon if it had a stopwatch feature that counts down the actual minutes and seconds what I really, really like about this app is that -- in keeping with the 10 Principles and therefore the ethos of Burning Man -- it is a gift and so therefore it is free to download in the iTunes store. Go on and get yours today!

Burning Man 2008Also available in the iTunes store is a paid app called "Burning Man 2008 - A Photo Essay by Matthew Freedman". First off, it's not really an app per se. It's really more accurate to describe it as a coffee table book like it says in its description in the iTunes store. It features 300 photos that Freedman took himself in 2008 and includes three essays he wrote. It's worth mentioning that this app/coffee table book's forward is written by Burning Man's power behind the Hat, namely Marian "Maid Marian" Goodell who is the director of Business and Communications for the Black Rock City LLC, the company that produces the Burning Man festival. That is to say this app is endorsed and carries the BORG's seal of approval. Be that as it may some will find this an opportunity to drink more KoolAid while others may see this as corporate propoganda. However you choose to see it, remember to take responsibility for that which you choose to take into your conciousness and manifest in your reality, hippie.

Taking a moment to compare 'Burning Man 2008' with 'BMCountdown' it's clear that way more effort has been put into the former than the latter. It comes loaded with more information and contains some very lovely imagery of Burning Man. But I don't think it's really fair to compare the two based on these merits alone. I mean first of all 'Burning Man 2008' sells for $3.99 so I have to be honest and say while it's a nice little coffee table book on my iPhone, I wouldn't pay money for it. Instead I would and do enjoy literally thousands of more photos by hundreds of other photographers by simply having downloaded Flickr's free app and running a search for "Burning Man". By doing it this way, I get to see more photos from all the years of the event and not just last year's alone. And I can do it for the low, low price of free.

Kindle for IphoneI'm on a roll with free apps and this may be due to part to the fact that I'm a starving artist that's currently unemployed so needless to say, money is tight for me (and for many other burners like me) in these economic times. With that, I'm going to suggest that if you want more of a text based book about Burning Man as opposed to pretty pictures then download the Kindle for iPhone app (this is the "free" part) and pay $7.99 (this is the "gotcha" part) for the digital version of the book "This is Burning Man" by Brian Doherty. This book is by far the most comprehensive writing about Burning Man that details the history and evolution of the event from its beginnings in 1986 up until 2004. The pros of getting the digital copy of this book is that it ain't heavy and it all fits nicely in the palm of your hand. The cons are that Doherty can't actually autograph this one like he's done for my paperback edition but oh well. If you don't want to shell out $7.99 for your own digital copy, you can borrow it from your local library for free. It's still a great book and you should read it regardless of what you paid for it or its method of delivery be it pixels or paper.

Halfway between the price point of $3.99 and "free" comes another burner useful app called TentFinder that costs $1.99. TentFinder purports to be the "ultimate music festival companion". I do not personally own this app so to review it would be unfair. But I will say that it aims to help you find your tent when lost at a music festival by apparently using GPS and a compass to guide you home. One review of TentFinder that I read on a blog said: "Great idea, bought this for global gathering and tested it out. Works well." However in another review in the iTunes store the user had just the opposite experience, giving it a rating of one star and wrote a not-so-glowing (but I think very informative) review. You be the judge and check it out for yourself. But I'd love to hear what you think so send me an email privately or post a public comment on this blog post and let me know.

That's it for this summer's crop of iPhone apps. I'm looking forward to more wonderful, useful and elegant applications as this technological platform unfolds as a tool of expression and innovation for other burner developers, programmers, and new media artists. It will also be very interesting to see how the apps as featured in this post develop and evolve in upcoming versions and revisions. Finally, for what's it's worth, I'd like to remind you that both the audio and video podcasts of BURNcast are available for free in iTunes. It's my gift to you. So fuck your day! :)

Teh Fine Print

This is an unofficial website. BURNcast is independently produced by burners for burners. It is offered as a gift to the Community (drink!!!). Our podcasts, vidcasts and blog are not intended to represent Burning Man in virtual reality or actual reality. The views expressed on BURNcast may or may not reflect that of the BMorg or the Black Rock City LLC and we're not affiliated with the Cult of Larry.

All rights reserved for all BURNcast audio podcasts and BURNcast vidcasts including any and all blog and calendar posts except where explicitly communicated on this blog. Permission required to use any BURNcast recordings for remix and reuse.